Toast is being served at Food 'n Flix

The September movie at Food 'n Flix is Toast. The very name grabbed my attention. The bonus was learning it was about Nigel Slater.

Our host this month is Anne-Marie from This Mama Cooks. Her announcement post may be found HERE



“No matter how bad things get, it’s impossible not to love someone who made you toast. Once you’ve bitten through that crusty surface to the soft dough underneath and tasted the warm salty butter, you’re lost forever.”

I LOVE toast. I think my heart did a flip flop when Nigel said that. Some may say, “Oh c’mon, it’s just toast after all.”

But for me, toast is a special treat. It’s a symbol of childhood, visual memories of toast being made and eaten that are so vivid they are almost tangible. My Nana Pierce would slip a slice of thick toasting bread into the toaster and we’d have great gobs of jam spread over it while it was hot.

My Nana Jackson toasted the bread under the broiler, flipping it to ensure good browning on each side, then smeared a thick slab of butter across the browned bread, but not all at once. A thin slathering first so the butter would melt into the ridges, and holes. The creamy yellow butter would glisten on the browned landscape that was transformed from a mere slice of bread to a warm slab of sustenance.

The sort of bread you use to make toast matters a great deal if you want to see a proper browning and actual texture. It was homemade bread or toasting bread that made all the difference. Not a soft loaf from the chain grocery shelf which may be filled with preservatives.

Early on the story depicted Nigel trying to get his mother more interested in cooking. He was a natural, but his mother was not all that interested in cooking.



In school while most of the other boys are getting into woodworking, Nigel asks to be placed in Home Economics. He's teased by the girls at first but they all love him when he turns out culinary masterpieces.



There certainly were many food scenes in Toast. There was of course..toast. There was also a variety of sumptuous dishes to select from for this month’s movie.

First off, I HAD to make fresh bread and it had to be toasting bread!



The recipe for this bread may be found at the King Arthur site HERE. But there was so much more inspiration in the food department.

There was also the Bolognese, scones, the pork pie top share with the gardener, fresh veggies and of course, the lemon meringue pie. How did they get that pie so large? It looked like a cake.

The broiled haddock with butter was one of my favorites because he was trying so hard to win his father’s approval. Young Nigel kept running from the oven to the door looking for his Dad to return home. Eventually it was ruined, overcooked, because he tried keeping it warm too long. I like that his father came home and ate it anyway, commenting that it was perfect.



We tried to find Haddock because I really did want to prepare that for this movie. After an amusing communication problem at the fish market, I settled on another sturdy white fish - grouper. :-)

There is still time to join in the fun. Check out Anne-Marie's site and also hop over to Food 'n Flix for details. Looking forward to the roundup!

Now, this inspired me to read Slater's memoir Toast so my review of the book may be found at Novel Meals HERE. Check it out for comparison if you'd like.



Next month I am hosting with the movie (and book) A Good Year by Peter Mayle. More on that in October...which is nipping at our heels!

Cheers!